Results 15,721-15,740 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: We said about 500 but, again, that is the worst case scenario. That would be the result of implementing the Commission's proposals.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: It does.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: Actually, no, it does not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: Not necessarily, because that depends on the price of mackerel. The industry was quite happy with that mackerel outcome because there was probably an oversupply of mackerel this year, which drove prices down. Price is as important as volume in mackerel.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: We have done okay in the negotiations on the new fisheries fund. Under the previous CFP, Ireland received a total of €70 million from the fund. This time we will receive €147 million, which is more than double what we received the last time. The €32 million for data collection will come out of that. More than €70 million will be available for sea-fisheries...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: That is a separate issue and the Deputy knows my position on it. In my view, one of the reasons the TAC was so high last year was to try to get political agreement on accommodating the Faroes and Iceland. I was fundamentally opposed to that deal and still am, but we should not forget it was a two-year deal that needs to be reviewed at the end of next year and we will be making our point...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: I accept some of them but not others.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: My record in this area is fairly clear.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: Just in case there is any doubt, there is an extremely strong commitment to this industry by the Government parties. We are preparing meticulously for the negotiations. My experience in Europe, which is limited, is that one has to make one's case on the basis of science rather than on the basis of emotion, but also on the basis of the social and economic consequences of decisions, and that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: No. We either get agreement on it collectively or it falls to the Commission to do it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: We are not going to be implementing this on a national basis and allowing other countries to do what they want. There would then be variations and problems in terms of enforcement. Whatever applies to Irish boats in Irish waters will apply to Spanish, Portuguese, French, British and Dutch boats.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: Yes, because the budget for enforcement is also up significantly. Yes, is the answer to that question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: We will do what we do every year, which is to give a detailed and factual press statement which includes the economic assessment from BIM. Mr. Michael Keatinge works literally through the night for two nights crunching all the numbers and putting them together. I am pleased to say that in the past two years, the value and volume of the fishing industry has been growing. People talk about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: That is all species landed into Ireland, an increase of 14%. During the same period, the value of landings increased by 48% from €208 million to €308 million.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: So far as I know, they were not from all Irish boats.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: Some of them do. We are trying to get more landings into Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: Our preference is to get as much fish caught by Irish boats landed into Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: The next best thing is to get foreign boats landing into Ireland rather than steaming back to Vigo or La Rochelle or wherever they want to go in order that we can process and add value to their fish here. Irish seafood exports amounted to €496 million in 2013. This follows a strong period of growth of almost 65% in the value of exports in the period 2009 to 2012. What we are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: We will have to be in a position, certainly by the middle of next year, to sign off on a plan to introduce the discards ban or the obligation to land, whatever one wants to call it, by around June or July 2015. That is what we had to do for the pelagic side which is much more straightforward as the fisheries are not as mixed. There are some exceptions but in general mackerel is a pretty...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (2 Dec 2014)

Simon Coveney: Deputy Harrington speaks to me about these issues all the time. He is right in that the industry is taking a very responsible approach and accepting a number of proposed cuts. As it happens, some of those proposed cuts would have seen very big increases either last year or the year before in the case of herring, for example. Fishermen realise that if they take hard medicine when they need...